Glenville residents: Lights too bright at night

PHOTOGRAPHER: Erica Miller

George Simpson looks outside his home on Amsterdam Road, across from the Old Dominion Freight Line, at 11 Seventh St. in Glenville on Monday evening, Jan. 25, 2016. The lights from the industrial park light up the neighborhood, glaring into nearby homes.

George Simpson said when he turns the lights off in his bedroom to go to sleep, the room remains illuminated unless he covers the windows.

Simpson, 75, has lived at his home on Amsterdam Road in Glenville for decades without excessive lighting issues until Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. was built across the street on Seventh Street in town in 2014.

When the trucking company was built, several LED lights, some between 25 and 35 feet tall, were constructed around the property.

Since the construction, several residents on Amsterdam Road have had issues with the brightness of the lights, and claim they are pointing lighting up their homes and properties.

“I’m not the kind of guy who complains much,” Simpson said. “When I’m sitting here watching TV, three big lights come right in my front door.

“I have to cover up the two front windows to stop the light from coming into my bedroom,” he saidd. “I’ve lived here over 40 years, and have never had this issue. At 75 years old, I could use a little privacy.”

Peter Looker and his wife, Terri Roben, have also struggled with the lighting issue over the past two years.

“It’s so bright … you feel like you’re being X-rayed,” Roben said. “When we bought this house, we didn’t have any idea they’d be building an industry there.”

Roben said the lights have affected the nature surrounding their property.

Last summer around midnight, Roben said, she heard a unique call by a bird. Curious about the bird’s song at the late hour, she recorded it and showed it to a friend.

“She told me, ‘That’s a mockingbird,’ ” Roben recalled. “It was singing that late at night because with the lights on, it thought it was daylight.”

Looker said he made a complaint to the town about the lights shortly after the facility opened, and the company sent a lighting engineer to the site, who found the foot candles, or units of illumination for the lights, were in conformance with the site plan approved by the town.

The figures were given to the town Building Inspector Paul Borisenko, who went out to the site and measured the foot candles with a light meter himself.

“We did a check, but it’s difficult to do,” Borisenko said. “However, glare is subjective. The meter reading was less than 1, which is what the plan was approved for.”

A petition was circulated to residents on Amsterdam Road in summer 2014, which about 20 people signed and was submitted to the town.

On the petition was information Looker found in Glenville’s Town Code about lighting regulations that he felt Old Dominion was not following.

“Lighting used to illuminate off-street loading shall be configured in a manner so as not to reflect upon adjoining properties or streets,” section 270.74 of the code reads.

Section 270.73 of the code also states, “All lighting associated with parking areas will be directed into the parking area and away from adjacent properties and public right of way.”

Looker said that when he brought the sections of the code to the town as evidence of the company’s non-compliance, Borisenko claimed the sections were only applicable to the Town Center on Route 50.

Several months passed before Looker went back to the town and Borisenko wrote Old Dominion a letter and told them about the complaints residents were making.

About a year ago, Old Dominion sent a light contractor to the site and Looker said minor improvements were made, including shades being put on the lights in the front of the property and pointing the lights down to face the ground.

“I did notice a slight improvement after that,” Looker said. “But the six 35-foot-tall lights in the back of the property remain unshaded and point horizontally, rather than down at the business’ property like they should be.”

Looker was back at the Town Board meeting Jan. 20 to make the same complaint he did last year.

Earlier this month Borisenko reached out to the company again, and a person is being sent to the site to adjust the lights again.

“We are working with the town on the issue,” Andrew Heltsley, the brand manager with Old Dominion’s corporate office, said.

The company declined to comment further.

This week, Supervisor Chris Koetzle had town attorney Michael Cuevas look over the sections in question from the town code, and Cuevas said the sections do apply to every commercial area in town — not just Town Center.

“It does apply to that area, but it still doesn’t change anything,” Koetzle said Friday. “It doesn’t mean Old Dominion’s not complying with those sections of law. It’s Mr. Looker’s interpretation that they’re not, and it’s the interpretation of our building inspector they are, notwithstanding.

“We will continue to try to find an arrangement both the residents and the business are happy with,” the supervisor said.

Looker, Borisenko and Koeztle are also planning to meet and discuss the issue.

“All I’m asking is for the company to follow the law and stop taking away our stars,” Looker said.

A light contractor with Old Dominion is expected to visit the local site soon and make an assessment for lighting changes on the property.

“Old Dominion has been pretty agreeable about sending someone out here, and they’ve made adjustments,” Borisenko said. “They’re trying to be good neighbors.”

Reach Gazette reporter Kate Seckinger at 395-3113, [email protected] or @KateSeckinger on Twitter.